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HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Here in Houston we had high hopes, but we were not selected to serve as the city where Amazon will build its second headquarters.
From the skyline, to the people, to the food -- what's not to love about our great city? Houston was one of 238 cities to submit a proposal asking Amazon to put its second headquarters here, but believe it or not the online retail giant did not choose us.
Amazon has narrowed its list of candidates down to 20 U.S. cities and Tornonto, Canada.
Based on what Amazon's original headquarters has meant for Seattle since 2010, some are predicting a nearly $40 billion boost for the city that is selected.
So why not Houston? Well, City Controller Chris Brown was so passionate about the Bayou City not being picked he took to Twitter to talk about it and he says Hurricane Harvey could be one reason Houston is no longer in the running.
"It probably did have an effect," Brown says. "We're talking about a $5 billion investment. You don't want to make that level of investment if you have worry that, not only your business is threatened but more so the people who work for you. We're talking about 50,000 new jobs. I think what we have to do is do a little bit of marketing. We get labeled 'the oil town'. People think of Urban Cowboy when they think of Houston, not the case. Today this economy is about 40 percent dependent on the energy business. We're diversified. The medical center, obviously the largest in the country."
Brown says Houston also has to work on expanding light rail to connect to the airports in order to continue to be competitive in business.
Austin, Dallas, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago include five of the cities still being considered for Amazon's second headquarters.
20 cities still in the running for Amazon’s 2nd headquarters:
- Atlanta, Ga.
- Austin, Texas
- Boston, Mass.
- Chicago, Ill.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas, Texas
- Denver, Colo.
- Indianapolis, Ind.
- Los Angeles, Calif.
- Miami, Fla.
- Montgomery County, Md.
- Nashville, Tenn.
- Newark, N.J.
- New York City, N.Y.
- Northern Virginia, Va.
- Philadelphia, Pa.
- Pittsburgh, Pa.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- Toronto, Ontario
- Washington, D.C.